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Urban Beekeeping Kit

Though this isn’t technology related, it was too cool to pass up. Omlet UK, known for their chicken-farming kits, have introduced a beekeeping kit for urban dwellers.

Priced at GBP 465, the Beehaus is available in a choice of colours, and it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. An optional starter kit, meanwhile, includes the accessories a first-time beekeeper will need, such as a bee suit, veil, smoker and hive tools. An average, colonized Beehaus will produce 50 jars of honey per year, UK-based Omlet says, with the potential for up to 100kg if things go well.

I think we have space on the back patio for one of these.

NeighborGoods

NeighborGoods is a simple concept based on sharing. Here’s an example of how it works -

I don’t have a vacuum cleaner, but someone I know does, and they’re sharing it on NeighborGoods, and it’s available, why not just borrow it? You simply click a button, fill out a pick up date and time, a return date and time, and then send the sharing request. If the person who owns the vacuum approves, you’re all set.

Of course there are a number of safeguards in place to keep people from stealing your stuff and a rating system to identify good and bad borrowers. There’s also a system in place to help you determine how much money you’ve saved by borrowing instead of purchasing.

You can check out NeighborGoods here.

Pachube

Pachube (pronounced “PATCH-bay”) is an open source platform that enables developers to connect sensor data to the web, aiming to be “responsive to and influence your environment.”

For end users, Pachube enables automation of your environment. For example controlling the lighting in your house, via sensors and the Internet. With its new notifications feature, called “triggers,” Pachube can cause a specific action in external applications or devices. Such as turning on your living room lights when a sensor (say on your garage door) activates.

Though the technology is in it’s very early stages, some of the most obvious applications revolve around energy consumption and savings. For example, you could use your iPhone to monitor energy usage in your house and adjust settings when necessary.

Other ideas include using the Pachube sensors to massively network and monitor activities of all sorts within a city; traffic, weather, pollution, water and food supply, energy usage and so on.

The point of this? Better good and services, better decisions and timely interaction with live data.